Colorado doctor helps develop more reliable cancer test

Dr. Bryan Haugen, who practices at the Universityof Colorado Anschutz Medical Campusin Aurora, has spent 20 years researching thyroid cancer and what the signs are that separates it from something benign.

Haugen says previously many tests would come back inconclusive for thyroid cancer and doctors would have to perform surgery simply to determine if it's cancerous or not.

The new test is called the Afirma Gene Expression Classifier and was developed by the company Veracyte (www.veracyte.com).

"I'm very excited that this test is available," Haugen said. "Over the past 20 to 25 years we and others have developed 50, 60, or 70 potential tests."

The new test, which looks for hundreds of different indicators of cancer on a molecular level, started being performed around the country about a year ago.